Page 80 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

tried to abolish ‘improper sacrifices found in Taoism, Buddhism and folk religion’ and replaced
them with the worship of Confucius (Hwang 1976). Although the movement was not

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successful in China , it picked up momentum in Malaya. Confucian temples were set up.
Schools were named after Confucius or included Confucianism as their founding principles
and local Chinese newspapers promoted Confucianism. All these efforts were backed by

local Chinese leaders and one of them was Lim Boon Kheng. He was a Christian before his
conversion to Confucianism in 1899. Nonetheless, despite all these efforts, Confucianism is

now better known as a philosophy more than a theistic religion (C. B. Tan 1983, 228).

th
Besides the Confucian Revival Movement, the late 19 and first half of the 20
th
centuries had also witnessed the beginning of new religion movements among the Chinese
such as Yiguandao and De Jiao Hui. These new religious movements began in China before
spreading beyond China after the Second World War. Both movements promoted teachings
that synthesized the teachings of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism and recognized the

validity of Christianity and Islam. In other words, these movements were trying to establish a
religion based on the syncretic Chinese religious worldview.

Chinese Malaysian Buddhists have also put in a lot of efforts to revive their religion.
According to C. B. Tan (2000), these efforts were taken to respond to the calls by the
educated Chinese and the Buddhist community to revive Buddhism. The efforts turned into

a religious modernization project and a long process to reassert, rationalize, reorganize, and
reinterpret Buddhism took place (L. O. Tan 2020). As a result of these efforts, more Chinese
have since identified themselves as Buddhist and followed the doctrines of Buddhism.

These TCR movements indicate that efforts to revive the religions have been taken.
Various TCR organizations have tried to revive their religions. However, these efforts have

not stopped Chinese Malaysians from converting to other religions. As reported in Chapter
One, the number of Chinese who have converted to non-TCR is rising. That leads to the
following question. Have the TCR organizations taken sufficient measures, or have they not?

Thus, research was carried out to look into this matter. Focus group discussions were held
with leaders of TCR organizations. The research focused on the following objectives:

1. To ascertain the meaning of TCR from the leaders’ perspectives.
2. To examine the leaders’ understanding on the seriousness of the conversion.
3. To analyse their views concerning the reasons that are causing Chinese Malaysians to

convert out of TCR.
4. To analyse measures taken by the leaders to revitalize their religions.

6 K’ang Yu-Wei’s effort to instate Confucianism as China’s state religion was part of his Hundred Days Reform
plan. His plan failed after the reformation initiated by him was crushed in 1898.

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